Serendipity
by Cutelittlestrawberry
Summary: As a Gabena, Serena was destined to inherit her family's winery once she turned twenty-one. However, after seeing that being involved with the winemaking business wasn't her cup of tea, she strove to find her own path. But somewhere along the way, how in the world did she end up meeting a handsome guy who made guitars in the middle of the woods? Amourshipping. Modern AU.


**A/N: Hello, everyone! I've been thinking of this idea for a long time now and thought that it'd be nice to create it into an amourshipping chapter story. However, I'm going to apologize in advance because the amourshipping moments won't be happening until probably around chapter three or four since that's when Ash will be making his debut in the story. Hope you enjoy reading :)**

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Serena Gabena has never really been into musicals. In fact, she never understood how in the world music comes out of nowhere and everyone was able to break out into dance numbers and magically know all the lyrics. But hey, she wouldn't complain if everyone began singing "What Time is It?" in her current situation because it was June 15th, the last day of school at Santalune Academy and everyone (Serena included) was anticipating to hear the last bell ring at 1:25.

It was 1:24.

Like Gabriella from High School Musical, Serena's eyes were eagerly glued at the clock, except she was chanting "summer" multiple times in her head instead of out loud to avoid garnering weird stares from her other classmates. Plus, she wasn't allowed to speak since students who faithfully followed the phrase "every point counts" were still finishing up their exams or double checking their answers.

 _Come on!_

Thirty seconds had passed.

 _Anytime now!_

Fifteen.

 _Hurry up already!_

Three.

Two.

One.

The school bell rang, cuing every student including Serena to hurriedly throw their notebooks and writing utensils into their backpacks. Everyone zipped right out the door while Mr. Sycamore helplessly hollered his annual "Have a great summer" despite knowing that his message was ignored by the majority of his now ex-students.

After pushing herself through a massive crowd in the hallways, Serena made her exit out the school and met up with her blunette best friend Miette. While waiting for their moms to pick them up, they decided to make last-minute plans to have a sleepover next Wednesday.

"Okay, so whose house should we have the sleepover at?" Serena asked while pulling up the her backpack straps since the weight of all her notebooks were quite heavy.

"Yours!" Miette exclaimed without a hint of hesitation. "I can never get enough of the amazing view at Vaniville Town. The hills, the vineyards, and the…" Miette continued rambling on about Vaniville which only made Serena smile, knowing that Miette would grab every opportunity to visit Serena's since the blunette lived in Santalune City in which the city's grass at the parks were no match for the acres of green fields in Vaniville.

Just fifteen minutes away from the city of Santalune, there lies Vaniville, a town that was basically the Napa Valley of Kalos. Due to the town's lush, green hills that stretched off for miles and the ocean coast that allowed for winds to provide moisture and dry summers, the town's Mediterranean climate suited best for growing vineyards, making grapes the specialty crop of Vaniville. Eventually, the grapes were used to produce what was now Kalos' finest wine in the region, thus allowing the little town's economy to flourish with wine as its main export. However, despite the boom in economy, the town had yet to build a school and so Serena went to school in Santalune City to pursue her education since her mother didn't want her to be homeschooled.

"Hello, Earth to Serena!" Miette waved her hands in front of Serena's blue eyes.

Serena blinked a few times. "Oh sorry, Miette. I guess I spaced out for a second."

"It's fine. Soooo can we have a sleepover at your house?" Miette asked, rapidly saying the last four words with eager.

"Yeah! I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind," Serena said while thinking about her mom enthusiastically declaring that Miette was always welcome at their place.

"Alright! And can we watch another k-dr—"

"No, we're not going to watch another k-drama." Serena interrupted with a firm voice, much to Miette's dismay.

Miette pouted. "Aw come on! We haven't watched one since winter break. Let's just watch one plleeaassee!"

"Oh alright!" Serena sighed, realizing that she wasn't going to win against Miette's pestering in this argument. "But only one."

"Really? Thanks, Serena you're the best!" Miette cheered.

"I know I am," Serena said in a comically arrogant tone.

Suddenly, a car horn honked loudly, interrupting Miette's rejoicing. Meanwhile, Serena almost had a heart attack and jumped on the spot since she wasn't one who liked loud noises.

"Aw man." Miette laughed nervously as she saw her mom's gray Honda Civic pulling up against the curb. "I forgot that my mom wanted to pick me up quickly so that she can beat the traffic."

Sure enough, the bluenette was right once the car window rolled down, revealing her mom who immediately hollered out, "Miette, honey! I've called your name three times already! It's time to get in the car!"

Miette nodded. "Ok mom I will!" While lightly jogging towards the vehicle, Miette gave a quick wave back to Serena. "Bye, Serena! And don't forget next Wednesday!"

"I won't, goodbye!"

While waving, Serena watched her best friend's car take off into the street out of school grounds and smiled when she saw that Miette was still waving through the window. After the car turned left, completely disappearing from plain sight, Serena let out a huge sigh.

 _And that concludes sophomore year_

The sigh was filled with mix emotions. Happy, because the hardest, most grueling and merciless year of high school (so far) was over and she can finally start having a life; but sad, because she'd have to endure approximately two and a half months of the oh-so-wonderful summer heat that everyone just loves. She can already hear all the air conditioners in Kalos shuddering at the impossible task of successfully cooling down the inhabitants of their respected houses.

"Serena?" With the voice of her mother Grace calling out her name, Serena had snapped out of her thoughts. "If you keep standing there, your backpack will eventually swallow you from head-to-toe, kiddo!" Grace laughed with her head sticking out of the window.

Confused, Serena peered over her shoulder and realized that the weight of her backpack was making her slouch like one of those hunchback cavemen. Serena immediately straightened her back before other students could laugh at her horrible posture.

"That's much better. Well, aren't you coming in the car?" Grace asked, but not impatient like the tone Miette's mother had not too long ago.

"No, mother, I would just love to stay here longer!" Now it was Serena's turn to laugh, this time at her own sarcastic remark as she opened the door. Grace laughed along with her daughter.

On the way back home, Serena stared outside the car window and smiled at her own reflection when she saw the bags underneath her eyes. It was the last time she was ever going to see those eye bags (at least until junior year started) now that she no longer had to pull off any all-nighters to finish mountain loads of homework and studying.

She recalled the inevitable, monotonous school routine she had to endure for the past nine months. On days when she was lucky enough to catch some sleep, she woke up at 5:00 a.m. because the school was merciless enough to start at seven in the morning. She would take a cold shower to wake herself up so that she wouldn't accidentally fall asleep in English, which was the first period of the day in her schedule.

Then the whole school day would be a total blur minus lunch break since that was the only time when Serena can chat with Miette in the cafeteria and discuss typical girl things like boys, shopping, and k-dramas (courtesy of Miette of course). Then, she would get picked up by her mom, go home, and do homework until it was past midnight.

Some life right? Wrong. She had no life at all. At least, until now.

"Enjoying your freedom?" Serena's mom asked with a smile when she noticed her daughter smiling.

With a sigh, Serena took a moment to relish the "freedom" and slumped backward while closing her eyes to relax and all she could mutter was, "Yes."

"I'm glad." Grace took a moment to turn her head left and right before entering the four-way intersection. "So did you make any plans yet?"

"Yeah, me and Miette want to have a sleepover at our house. Is that ok with you?"

"Sleepover you said? Sure! Miette's welcome anytime." Serena smirked at her mom's last time since her prediction of what her mother would say was correct. "Say, are you guys going to watch another k-drama?" Grace asked with a bit too much enthusiasm than Serena would've liked.

"Yeah we are! And you can tone it down just a tad bit, mom," Serena said sheepishly when they stopped at a red light. Although she loved her mom for her easygoing attitude, she felt that it was too embarrassing at times.

"Haha, whoops! Sorry, kiddo. I'm just very happy to see you so relaxed since you've been so stressed out lately."

"It's all good, mom." Serena replied while giggling.

Once the red light turned green, the car moved forward and after a few minutes, the car was already pulling up in the driveway in front of their house. As Serena stepped outside from the car, she took a good look at their home. It's been a while since she stopped and took a moment to appreciate where she lived.

It was a vineyard-estate house that's been built by Serena's ancestors in the nineteenth century in the style of an old farmhouse: a style that was built for the sole purpose of practicality in the rural areas of Vaniville. Because of this, the house still retained its old charm and character. One of those charms were the roofs. They were gabled and fashioned the color of what seemingly was supposed to be black; but with closer observation the roof had actually faded into a dark gray as a result of aging over the years. Also sitting atop on the roof were two single dormers with their own individual windows that protruded out towards the front like eyes that gave a warm welcome to whoever was visiting the Gabena household.

Serena smiled when she gave note to another charm of the house which was her personal favorite: the white wraparound porch. The porch held many dear memories to her such as her mother sitting on a rocking chair outside lulling her one-year-old self to sleep when the sun began to hide behind the mountains or when her five-year-old self would run towards her mother placing her dirty boots on the side of the porch after a long, hard day of tending the vineyards.

It's safe to say that Serena loved her house. No, Serena _really_ loved her house.

Before going inside, Serena reminded her mom to lock the car since her mom tended to be forgetful at times. Muttering a "thanks," Grace pressed the lock button on the car keys.

"What would I do without you, Serena?" Grace said gratefully while unlocking the front door to their home.

"Your car could've gotten stolen," Serena remarked as she stepped into their spacious home.

"Right," Grace laughed, following her daughter inside.

As the two were settling in their home, Serena flopped herself onto the couch.

"Ahh, this is the life."

"You are enjoying yourself way too much, kiddo." Grace eyed her daughter's lazy position.

"Mom, don't be a killjoy!" Serena whined.

"See, this is why I asked you earlier if you had any plans because I know you are just going to be lazy again."

"But I wasn't lazy last summer!" Serena sat up while throwing her hands up in the air. "I helped you out with the vineyards last year. That's something."

"And then fifteen minutes in you told me you had to use the bathroom, which actually turned out to be an excuse for you to sneak in time to watch TV." Grace shook her head.

Serena opened her mouth to give another retort but closed it since her mother was right. However, she opened it again once she came up with another one. "But summer is the time when teens like myself are supposed to be lazy."

Now it was Grace's turn to go through the process of opening her mouth and closing it since her daughter was also right. "I suppose you're right," Grace said while sighing. "You have been working hard for the school but you still need to learn your responsibilities in the winemaking business and we're running out of time since you're already sixteen. By the time you're twenty-one, you'll be taking over Gabena Wineries."

Serena bit her lip at the mention of Gabena Wineries. One of the main families of the winemaking business was the Gabenas, who owned Gabena Wineries, a winery that's been established in Vaniville by Serena's past relatives since 1863. The ownership of Gabena Wineries and its vineyards had been passed down through generations when their children reached twenty-one years of age. Currently, Grace was the owner of the family winery and soon, Serena will inherit the business when she was old enough. However, Serena wasn't necessarily sure if that was what she wanted to do in life but she didn't have the heart to tell that to her mother.

Honestly, Serena loved her mother for her easygoing personality… though once she started talking about anything related to winemaking, that easygoing personality goes away—Serena didn't like that at all.

"I know, mom," Serena finally said after moments of silence. "I know I have responsibilities that I must fulfill but I also need a break too."

"And you will get breaks," Grace reassured. "After all, I did ask if you did have plans and you did with Miette. However, I don't want you just taking breaks. It's bad for you to lounge around in the couch all day so you need to productive at something. Therefore, starting the week after next week, I want you to start working on the vineyards with me. And by working, I mean _actually_ working." Grace finished, emphasizing the last sentence with a firm tone.

"Ok." Serena nodded her head without any more complaints. Today was the day when she finished school and she wasn't going to spend the rest of her day arguing with her mother. She wanted to relax.

"Good." Grace then walked into the kitchen. "So, how does spaghetti sound for dinner?"

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 **In case you're wondering where I got this idea, it was inspired from the 1998 version of The Parent Trap movie where the twins' father was a winemaker. I know absolutely nothing about wine since I'm not legal to drink it (and I don't plan on consuming alcohol once I'm allowed to since I personally don't want to drink) but I'm willing to do some research about the winemaking process to keep this story as authentic and accurate as possible. See you again in the next update :)**


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